'Pink Out' at 6 Schools Raises $5,002 for Making Strides

In the Nazareth Area School District, officials likely would advise against a “freak out.”

But a “pink out” certainly would be permissible.

Take, for example, the pinkish efforts of teacher Susan Bostian, whose insistence on “thinking pink” led to a boost for the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides” campaign against breast cancer.

For a detailed history on "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer," visit www.makingstrideswalk.org.

Bostian and fellow “pinkster” Jim Presto, president of the Nazareth football boosters, took their campaign district-wide in the fall.

It included the sale of T-shirts displaying the word “Hope” and the sale of pink bracelets. It involved all fall sports teams and their respective booster clubs.

And it culminated with Oct. 12’s “think pink” day and the “pink” home football game against Bethlehem Catholic.

It also didn’t hurt that the Blue Eagles shut out the Golden Hawks, 30-0. Nazareth coach Rob Melosky was quoted in an Express Times story as saying, “Any time you can post a goose egg, it’s a good job.”

Melosky, Bostian, some fall athletes and others were on hand at Monday night’s school board meeting for a mock check presentation to the cancer society. The oversized check was in the amount of $5,002.

Bostian, a gifted support teacher K-12, points out that “think pink” raised another couple hundred dollars more than what’s on the check.

”We’re making a difference,” she said when asked about the fall campaign, emphasizing that it is one of the first district-wide events.

She also said several Nazareth teachers -- as well as some district parents -- have succumbed to breast cancer. And she said some teachers are battling it now.

”It touches all of us in some way,” Bostian said of breast cancer.

Bostian and others, meanwhile, have another cancer society-related event on the drawing board. She said Nazareth will have its first Relay for Life walk June 1-2 at the middle school.